Afternoon Briefs: First black female Harvard Law grad dies from COVID-19; food delivery apps face antitrust suit
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First black female Harvard Law grad dies from novel coronavirus
The first black woman to graduate from Harvard Law School has died after contracting COVID-19. Lila Fenwick graduated from the school in 1956. She died April 4 at age 87. Fenwick was a human rights official at the United Nations, a lawyer in private practice, and a benefactor who helped establish the Foundation for Research and Education in Sickle Cell Disease. (The New York Times)
Food delivery companies face antitrust lawsuit
GrubHub, DoorDash, Postmates and Uber Eats are facing a civil antitrust suit that claims that their contracts bar restaurants from charging cheaper meal prices to customers who order directly or dine in. The New York lawsuit says the delivery services charge fees that range from 13% to 40% of revenue, while the average restaurant’s profit ranges from 3% to 9% of revenue. (Bloomberg, the New York Law Journal)
States are asked to release execution drugs for COVID-19
Seven medical experts are asking death penalty states to release their stockpiles of sedatives and paralytics used in executions. In a letter, the experts say the drugs are needed in hospital intensive care units for COVID-19 patients needing ventilators. (The Guardian via How Appealing, the letter)
11th Circuit keeps intact Jeffrey Epstein plea deal
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Atlanta has kept intact a plea deal more than a decade ago that allowed financier Jeffrey Epstein to escape federal sex-trafficking charges if he pleaded guilty in state court. Epstein pleaded guilty to solicitation in state court in 2008 and served 13 months in jail. He died by suicide last year as he was awaiting trial on new charges that he trafficked underage girls. The panel majority said victims suffered “unspeakable horror,” but the deal couldn’t be unraveled because of prosecutors’ failure to notify victims. Epstein was never charged in federal court before the plea deal, which means that the victims weren’t entitled to notice under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, the 11th Circuit said. (The Miami Herald, Politico, How Appealing here and here, the April 14 decision)
